“We Are Now God’s Stewards”
DELIGHTING IN GOD’S GRACE
Psalm 23 and Luke 15: 11-32
1. (Show the following image on Overhead Projector) http://www.sierranv.net/~dscheibl/optical.html
2. As you look at that picture, what is it that you see? One minute you see a haggard old woman and another, a beautiful young girl. Which picture is the correct one? I guess the answer here is neither. It all depends on which one you choose to focus.
3. In a similar way, we as believers face a choice as we look out onto the world around us, about which of two perspectives we are going to focus on – the view from earth or the view from heaven.
• Now in this picture of the two women – the choice about which woman you prefer to look at is really neither here nor there – it makes no difference to anyone other than yourself.
• But, it makes all the world of difference about which vantage point you choose to focus on as you consider the world and all that is in it. Because your perspective will impact and shape your:
Attitude
Amplitude
Gratitude
ATTITUDE – YOUR WAY OF THINKING AND BEHAVING
1. The view from a “this world” perspective can either frighten you into withdrawal or passivity – fearing there is nothing much you can do to make any difference. Or it can generate within you what I call “the AVIS Rent-a-Car ‘We Try Harder’ spirit” - the belief that if you just try a bit harder you can change things for the better.
• This is the spirit that relies on human strength, ingenuity, and determination.
• It’s the proud spirit that says “we can lift ourselves up by our own bootstraps” –
• it’s the spirit that motivated the builders of the Tower of Babel to say “Come let us make a name for ourselves and build our own stairway to heaven”.
• It’s also the spirit evident in the older brother in the story of the Prodigal son who figured that because he had stayed home and worked hard and done his duty that he deserved to be rewarded in some way by his father – that his father “owed him” – “I’ve done all this work for you and you never once threw a party for me and my friends!”
• So close to his dad and yet so far from his heart! Had his perspective of his father been different he could have asked him at any time and his dad would have been delighted to bless his son with a huge shebang – a party he and his friends would never forget.
• Sadly there are those in the church, who have been there many, many years – working and serving hard, doing their fair share and more, never shirking their responsibilities, even picking up after the slackers – who have much the same mindset and in all those years have never yet come to know the Father’s heart. They’ve never experienced the party or asked dad for one.
2. The view from heaven, on the other hand, agrees with Jesus’ word in John 15 that He is the Vine and we are the branches and that “apart from Him we can do nothing”. But also agrees with the word of Paul in Ephesians 6:10 that encourages us to “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might” and in Philippians 4: 13 that says, “I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me”.
• It’s a perspective that acknowledges our own absolute weakness and frailty and utter unworthiness – as the Prodigal did on returning home, willing to just be a servant in the Father’s house, and can likewise humbly receive and rejoice in the lavish grace of the Father that restores him to his place of honor and privilege as the son.
• It’s a perspective that acknowledges our own personal powerlessness, while at the same time affirming the power of God to accomplish in us and through us His perfect will.
• It’s a perspective that encourages us to pray with confidence the words Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer that say “Thy Kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” - starting here, in me and then through me into this world. And concludes with the words “For thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever and ever, Amen”.
• So we don’t quit and give up in the face of opposition and obstacles and problems because we are those who are filled with hope and believe that there is a day coming when God together with His church will bring about a new heaven and a new earth where the old things have passed away and all things have been made new.
AMPLITUDE – THE SPACIOUSNESS OF YOUR SPIRIT
1. Trying to find appropriate words that rhyme with “-tude” is pretty tough. Your worldview or perspective will also determine your AMPLITUDE. That word conveys the idea of spaciousness, of breadth, of volume, of capacity, of abundance, and ampleness. In astronomy it refers to the difference between the maximum and minimum brightness of a variable star.
2. So I use the word to convey the concept of spaciousness or generosity of spirit.
3. The picture of God’s goodness and resources portrayed in both Psalm 23 and in the Luke 15 story is of absolute abundance. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” – there is nothing whatsoever that I lack in my relationship with Him – He cares for every need of mine and blesses me – physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually so that “my cup runneth over”. In the Gospel story, He lavishes His abundance on the younger son who has come home and would have gladly done the same for the older brother anytime he would have desired, but he never so much as asked. It sure says much about the kind of limited and restricted relationship he had with his father even while living in the home.
4. The abundance of the Father is available for all His children – for those who live in His house as well as for those who have left home and gone to live in the far country.
5. To view the world around us from the earthly perspective is to see it as a place of limited resources and if I am to have anything of it then I better jump in ahead of others and grab what I can for myself or be left out in the cold.
• It’s the view that what I have is mine and I worked hard to get it and I’m not about to part with it without a fight.
• And so greed and avarice and price gouging and jealousy and war are some of the outcomes that such a perspective produces – at the individual level as well as at the national and international level.
• It is this limited perspective that encourages many of the First World nations – the U.S., Western Europe, Japan – to plow under or otherwise destroy millions of tons of perfectly good food – oranges, cabbages, radishes, rice, dairy products – in order to keep the prices high.
• Listen to this quote from Ken Schoolland, professor of economics and political science at Hawaii Pacific University, and former US International Trade Commission economist and advisor on trade matters to the White House. “US officials ordered 3.5 billion oranges, two-fifths of all production, to be removed from the California market in order to raise prices… One farmer in California, Carl Pescosolido, faced hefty fines because he chose to give two million oranges to the poor people of San Francisco rather than let them rot in the field.” [http://www.isil.org/resources/lit/disaster-foreign-aid.html]
• It is this worldly perspective that filled the older brother’s heart with fuming jealousy about the father’s lavish expression of joy at the return of his lost son and locked him into a stubborn refusal to participate in the party.
6. The view from heaven, on the other hand, acknowledges what David wrote in Psalm 24:1, that “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it.”
• It recognizes that everything in all of creation belongs to God – He is the owner of the land, the oceans, the mountains, the rivers and lakes. He is the owner of the riches in the soil – the gold, the platinum, the diamonds, and the oil.
• The fruit and produce of the land are His also and he has built a law of multiplication into seeds so that when the plants grow and mature they always produce many times more than was sown so that there should always be more than enough for everybody and no one should ever go hungry.
• We ourselves - our minds, our hearts, our bodies, our time, our talents and all that we have – are all His.
• Listen to God’s word to the Israelites prior to their entrance into the Promised Land in Deuteronomy 8: “10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16 He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.”
• You recall the miracle of the loaves and the fishes when Jesus fed the 5,000 plus. I have often tried to picture just how that event might have taken place. I see Andrew bringing the little fellow with his offering of 5 sandwiches and 2 fish to Jesus. Jesus smiles and receives them; blesses them and breaks them and hands the pieces to the disciples, saying "now go feed the folks". At what point did the miracle of multiplication take place? Did it take place from the hands of Jesus, or only as the disciples went in obedience and gave away what they had in their hands? Had they held on to what they had, the multiplication would have stopped at that point.
7. And when we operate out of the frame of reference, that God is the abundant giver of every good and perfect gift, that we can never out give Him, that His resources are never ending, that He loves to give to and bless all His children, then it produces a similar generous spirit within us.
GRATITUDE – YOUR MEASURE OF THANKFULNESS
1. The person who views life from a worldly perspective will hardly be a thankful person – unless it is a kind of self-centered thankfulness and pride over their own achievements.
• It’s the attitude of the pouting older brother who focused more on all that “he” had done over the years, working obediently for his dad, and what should have been his due.
• How come you never threw a party for me and my buddies all these years, but you pull out all the stops for this son of yours (not my brother!) whose done nothing but squander his inheritance in loose living and bring disgrace on the family name! Hhmmf! Where’s the payoff for me?
• His spirit is so poisoned that he doesn’t even hear his father remind him that everything he has also belongs to this older son.
• Do you notice how an ungrateful person – one who is feeling that he/she has been cheated or not gotten what they think they deserve - also cannot express love and kindness and ends up losing out on even more of the richness God has for us as their spirit shrivels.
• So the older brother cannot give thanks that his lost brother has come home and neither can he bring himself to enter into the joy of the celebration.
2. The one who views life from heaven’s perspective by contrast, can hardly believe the grace and mercy that has been freely bestowed on them.
• The returned prodigal first acknowledged to himself that he had blown it and was no longer worthy to be called his father’s son and hoping to simply become a hired servant.
• But while he was still some distance from home – the father sees him, runs to embrace and kiss him and return to him the symbols and privileges of sonship – more focused on restoration than his son’s words of sorrow and repentance.
3. Gratitude and generosity of spirit tend to flow from the lives of those who acknowledge that they have received far more than they ever deserved.
4. In Luke 7 we have the story of Jesus’ encounter with a former prostitute – let me read it and with that I will close:
• 36Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. 39When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is —that she is a sinner." 40Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you." "Tell me, teacher," he said. 41"Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,[a denarius was one day’s wages] and the other fifty. 42Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?" 43Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled." "You have judged correctly," Jesus said. 44Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven — for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little." 48Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."
• Believers are those who by God’s grace have come to view life from an altogether new perspective and it shows in their Attitude, their Amplitude, and their Gratitude.
• My brothers and sisters, as you live the rest of your days, may you choose the perspective of heaven.
AMEN.
